Opera shared its Opera 10.0 browser
release candidate with the world Tuesday, as it advanced towards an
important launch. The third-party browser manufacturer's new
offering is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows computers. It
refines many of the features that were introduced in the beta
candidates of 10.0 release.

Namely, speed boost and Mail
have continued to be refined and are now at the point where Opera is
satisfied with them. In testing
by BetaNews, the Turbo mode now delivers 358 percent
faster page loads than when in normal load when the turbo is turned
up to x3 (BetaNews failed to mention what test they used).
This is 58 percent more than even Opera's advertised boost. The
compressed pages are delivered with JPGs at high compression rates,
making some images more pixellated.

We did our own testing of
Opera 10.0 RC and looked at how it squared up against another recent
testing-phase browser -- Google
Chrome 4. We tested the two browsers using FutureMark's
PeaceKeeper browser test, which is now out of beta. We also
used CelticKane's JavaScript test to look at script performance in a
bit more detail. All tests were ran in Windows Vista on a VAIO
notebook with T8100 (2.1 GHz, 45 nm) processor and a NVIDIA 8400 GS
graphics card. For Opera the Build was 1733, and Presto was
2.2.15. For Chrome, the version was 4.0.202.0.

In
PeaceKeeper Opera scored 1718 points. This seems a bit low,
compared to Safari and Chrome, but its partly because of the slower
processor on the testing laptop. However, Chrome did score 2929
points, easily besting Opera's offering. Part of this is
because the PeaceKeeper test does not test or reward for
special/experimental standards such as Nav Links, Web Forms
2.0,VoiceXML/X+V, or CSS Projection mode (all of which Opera
supports, but Google does not). Such standards are still rarely
used, though, so this may be a fair omission.

Digging a bit
deeper we ran the two browsers through CelticKane's Javascript test.
Opera scored a modest 274 ms -- pretty good compared to the results
listed on the page (faster than Chrome 2 was in July). Still
Chrome 4 managed to once again show up the competitor in speed,
coming in at a smoking 195 ms (Apple's Safari is still faster,
according to CelticKane's page).

In short Opera does not have
an answer to Chrome in script performance in 10.0 RC. It does
have one potential answer in the long run -- its new Carakan
Javascript engine -- but unfortunately it won't be available at
10.0's release. Opera spokesman, Thomas Ford describes, "It
won't be ready for (Opera) 10 final, but rest assured that it will be
impressive when it comes."

In the meantime, it's
important to consider the browsers' other features (besides pure
speed). Both Chrome and Opera suffer from being minority
players in the market, so some pages that are poorly coded may not be
compatible fully with them (but are compatible with Firefox/IE).
In general both offer fairly robust ad-filtering, pop-up blocking,
and script filtering. Both also include anti-phishing
technologies. Overall, Chrome is a bit more secure as each tab
is sandboxed separately. However, in our experience Opera does
a better job of blocking most ads then Chrome.

So in speed
Chrome 4 wins, and in security its a virtual draw. So let's
move to the bonus round -- what really sticks out about the browser.
Looking at Chrome first, one great feature is the tab isolation,
which means that if one tab crashes the whole browser doesn't go
down. The privacy mode (incognito) is also nice.
Downsides include a slightly less refined interface and no tabbed
colorization (a nice feature in IE).

Looking at Opera
10.0 RC one impressive aspect is its friendly user interface.
Speed dial is a great feature and is implemented arguably better than
the knock-offs (Firefox add-ons, etc.) that have arisen, since it was
first revealed. For users with slow connections Opera is the
best option hands down, thanks to its turbo mode. Opera also
installs much faster than Chrome. After clicking through the
dialogs, Opera installed on our machine in 58 sec., while Chrome took
close to 4 minutes -- Chrome's installation speed will be quicker
than this on faster connections, though. Disappointments
include its lack of a privacy mode, poor plug-in/add-on support
(though improving), and no tabbed colorization by default.

Our
conclusion is that when it comes to speed Chrome beats Opera
handily. However, when features and other considerations come
into play, the browsers are much closer and which is best boils down
to personal preference. We suggest you try both. Opera
10.0 RC can be found
here and Google Chrome 4 can be found
here.

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